Snail Mail Snags Postcard 37 Years

SEELYVILLE, Pa. (AP) _ Talk about snail mail: A woman vacationing in New Jersey 37 years ago popped a postcard into the mail and it just arrived at her mother’s house in Pennsylvania.

Dorothy Orth, of Seelyville in northeastern Pennsylvania, baffled her daughter when she called Saturday to thank her for the card.

``What card?″ Janet Richards, of Port Jervis, N.Y., asked.

When her mother said it was from Asbury Park, N.J., she remembered.

``I sent that postcard in August 1967, when my husband, Larry, and I were on our fifth wedding anniversary,″ she said. Orth received it July 17, almost 37 years later.

In addition to the 4-cent stamp a 23-cent stamp was affixed, and the 18431 zip code was penciled in. The card was postmarked Aug. 19, 1967, at the Asbury Park post office, and July 14, 2004, in New York City’s Brooklyn borough.

``A lot of credit goes to the Brooklyn post office and whoever got the postcard to me,″ Orth said.

That was Ernesto Perry, of the U.S. Post Office undelivered mail unit in Brooklyn.

The postcard was behind a machine that was recently moved, Perry said. He said he added the zip code and the 23 cent stamp and sent it on its way.

``We always try to send back mail whenever possible, it doesn’t matter how long it has been lost or misplaced,″ he said.